MOVES-Greek bank rescue fund HFSF picks Verykios as new chairman

ATHENS, June 26 (Reuters) - Greece’s bank rescue fund HFSF said on Tuesday that Andreas Verykios was appointed as chairman of its general council, succeeding George Mihelis.

Financed by euro zone and International Monetary Fund loans that Greece will have to repay, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund was set up in 2010 to help shore up the country’s banking system.

The fund, set up as a private legal entity with administrative autonomy from the state, owns stakes in the country’s main lenders after taking part in their recapitalisation during Greece’s debt crisis.

The HFSF has lost about two-thirds of its original 25 billion euros investment, as its stakes in the banks are now worth much less than it originally paid for them.

Verykios was formerly deputy director general for lending operations at the European Investment Bank (EIB) until 2008 and head of human resources at EIB from 2000 to 2005.

Before joining the EIB, Verykios started his working career in merchant shipping companies in London and in Piraeus, moving on to banking as corporate finance manager at Citibank Greece, from 1978 to 1981.

The fund’s general council is made up of nine non-executive members and makes policy decisions on its on its own initiative or upon proposals by the fund’s three-member executive board. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos Editing by Alexandra Hudson)